U.S. patent application number 16/378883 was filed with the patent office on 2019-08-01 for method and arrangement for signaling of parameters in a wireless network.
The applicant listed for this patent is Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ). Invention is credited to Robert Baldemair, Mats Sagfors.
Application Number | 20190238237 16/378883 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 43128342 |
Filed Date | 2019-08-01 |
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United States Patent
Application |
20190238237 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Baldemair; Robert ; et
al. |
August 1, 2019 |
Method and Arrangement for Signaling of Parameters in a Wireless
Network
Abstract
A mobile terminal receives, over a first cell configured on a
carrier frequency, at least one parameter associated with a second
cell configured on a carrier frequency. The at least one parameter
comprises a cell identity. The mobile terminal then derives at
least one physical layer characteristic for the second cell based
on the received at least one parameter. Thereby, the mobile
terminal is able to receive transmissions over the second cell,
even if it could not initially detect the presence of the cell.
Inventors: |
Baldemair; Robert; (Solna,
SE) ; Sagfors; Mats; (Kyrkslatt, FI) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) |
Stockholm |
|
SE |
|
|
Family ID: |
43128342 |
Appl. No.: |
16/378883 |
Filed: |
April 9, 2019 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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14792218 |
Jul 6, 2015 |
10305607 |
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16378883 |
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13061243 |
Feb 28, 2011 |
9106380 |
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PCT/SE2010/051055 |
Oct 1, 2010 |
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14792218 |
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61356726 |
Jun 21, 2010 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04B 17/101 20150115;
H04L 5/0048 20130101; H04L 5/001 20130101; H04W 48/16 20130101;
H04W 24/10 20130101; H04L 5/0091 20130101; H04L 5/0073 20130101;
H04L 5/0053 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H04B 17/10 20060101
H04B017/10; H04W 24/10 20060101 H04W024/10; H04L 5/00 20060101
H04L005/00 |
Claims
1. A method in a user equipment, the method comprising: configuring
the user equipment to receive transmissions over a second cell
configured on a carrier frequency based on a physical layer
characteristic for the second cell, wherein the physical cell
characteristic is derived from one or more parameters received over
a first cell configured on a carrier frequency; and receiving the
transmissions over the second cell.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more parameters
comprise information indicating a cell identity of the second cell,
and a number of transmit antenna ports at the second cell.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving, over the
first cell, an indication that the user equipment should use the
one or more parameters received over a first cell to derive the at
least one physical layer characteristic for the second cell.
4. The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving, over the
first cell, an indication that no cell-specific reference signals
are detectable in the second cell; and in response to the
indication that no cell-specific reference signals are detectable,
the user equipment does not attempt to perform any measurement on
cell-specific reference signals in the second cell.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one physical layer
characteristic comprises one or more of: a scrambling code, a
reference signal configuration, a control signaling
configuration.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the at least one physical layer
characteristic comprises one or more of: a PUSCH scrambling code, a
PDSCH scrambling code, a L1/L2 control signaling scrambling
code.
7. The method of claim 5 wherein the at least one physical layer
characteristic comprises one or more of: a cell-specific reference
signal configuration, a sounding reference signal configuration, an
MBSFN reference signal configuration, an uplink demodulation
reference signal configuration, a reference signal hopping pattern,
a PUSCH hopping pattern, a downlink control channel configuration,
an uplink control channel configuration.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more parameters further
comprise one or more of: a carrier frequency, a number of transmit
antenna ports, a bandwidth, and a cyclic prefix length
indication.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one physical layer
characteristic comprises a reference signal configuration, the
method further comprising: performing a measurement of a signal
received over the second cell based on the reference signal
configuration; and transmitting a measurement report.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the cell identity is included in
a request to add a secondary cell.
11. The method of claim 11 further comprising adding the second
cell corresponding to the received cell identity.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein the first cell is configured on
the same carrier frequency as the second cell.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein if the one or more parameters
received at the user equipment does not include a carrier
frequency, a number of transmit antenna ports, a bandwidth, or a
cyclic prefix length indication, the user equipment assumes that
the parameters not received have the same value in the second cell
as in the first cell.
14. A method in a network node, the network node serving a first
cell configured on a carrier frequency, the method comprising:
configuring user equipment to receive transmissions over a second
cell configured on a carrier frequency, wherein configuring the
user equipment comprises: transmitting one or more parameters
associated with the second cell to the user equipment over the
first cell; and indicating to the user equipment to derive at least
one physical layer characteristic for the second cell based on the
one or more parameters.
15. The method of claim 14 wherein the one or more parameters
comprise a cell identity of the second cell and a number of
transmit antenna ports.
16. The method of claim 14 wherein the network node serves the
second cell, the method further comprising transmitting
synchronization signals, reference signals or parts of system
information over the second cell with reduced or zero power.
17. The method of claim 14 further comprising transmitting, over
the first cell, an indication that no cell-specific reference
signals are detectable in the second cell.
18. The method of claim 14 wherein for each of the one or more
parameters, the network node transmits the parameter only if the
parameter has a different value in the second cell than in the
first cell.
19. A mobile terminal comprising: processing circuitry configured
to: configure the mobile terminal to receive transmissions over a
second cell configured on a carrier frequency based on a physical
layer characteristic for the second cell, wherein the physical
layer characteristic is derived from one or more parameters
received over a first cell configured on a carrier frequency; and a
transceiver configured to receive the transmissions over the second
cell.
20. A network node comprising: processing circuitry operative to:
configure a mobile terminal to receive transmissions over a second
cell configured on a carrier frequency based on a physical layer
characteristic for the second cell, wherein the physical layer
characteristic is derived from one or more parameters sent to the
user equipment over a first cell configured on a carrier frequency;
and a transceiver configured to transmit: the one or more
parameters to mobile terminal over the first cell; and an
indication to the mobile terminal to derive the physical layer
characteristic for the second cell based on the one or more
parameters.
Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.
No. 14/792,218, filed Jul. 6, 2015, which was a continuation of
U.S. application Ser. No. 13/061,243, filed Feb. 28, 2011, which
was the National Stage of International Application No.
PCT/SE2010/051055, filed Oct. 1, 2010, which claims the benefit of
U.S. Provisional Application 61/356,726, filed Jun. 21, 2010, the
disclosures of each of which are incorporated herein by reference
in their entirety.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The present application relates to signaling techniques
between a wireless mobile station and a network node in a wireless
communications system. In particular, it relates to signaling of
cell identity information in a wireless communications network.
BACKGROUND
[0003] The Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless communication system
specified by the 3rd-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) uses
orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) in the downlink
and discrete-Fourier-transform-spread OFDM in the uplink. The basic
LTE downlink physical resource can thus be seen as a time-frequency
grid. This is illustrated in FIG. 1, where each resource element
corresponds to one OFDM subcarrier during one OFDM symbol
interval.
[0004] In the time domain, LTE downlink transmissions are organized
into radio frames of 10 milliseconds, each radio frame consisting
of ten equally-sized subframes of length T.sub.subframe=1
millisecond. The LTE frame structure is illustrated in FIG. 2.
[0005] Furthermore, the resource allocation in LTE is typically
described in terms of resource blocks, where a resource block
corresponds to one slot (0.5 milliseconds) in the time domain and
12 contiguous subcarriers in the frequency domain. Resource blocks
are numbered in the frequency domain, starting with 0 from one end
of the system bandwidth.
[0006] Earlier versions of the LTE standard, e.g. Release 8 and 9,
support bandwidths up to 20 MHz. However, in order to meet the
IMT-Advanced requirements, 3GPP has initiated work on LTE Release
10. One of the goals of LTE Release 10 is to support bandwidths
larger than 20 MHz. However, one important requirement on LTE
Release 10 is to assure backward compatibility with earlier
versions of the standard. This backwards compatibility should also
include spectrum compatibility. As a result, a LTE Release 10
carrier wider than 20 MHz should appear as a number of distinct LTE
carriers to a legacy terminal, e.g. an LTE Release 8 or Release 9
terminal. Each such carrier can be referred to as a Component
Carrier.
[0007] In particular for early LTE Release 10 deployments, it can
be expected that there will be a smaller number of LTE Release
10-capable terminals compared to many LTE legacy terminals.
Therefore, it is necessary to assure an efficient use of a wide
carrier also for legacy terminals, i.e., that it is possible to
implement carriers in such a manner that legacy terminals can be
scheduled in all parts of the wideband LTE Release 10 carrier. The
most straightforward way to obtain this would be by means of
"carrier aggregation." Carrier aggregation implies that an LTE
Release 10 terminal can receive multiple component carriers, where
the component carriers have, or at least have the possibility to
have, the same structure as a Release 8 carrier. The same structure
as Release 8 implies that all Release 8 signals, e.g. primary and
secondary synchronization signals, reference signals, and system
information are transmitted on each carrier. Carrier aggregation is
illustrated generally in FIG. 3.
[0008] During initial access, a carrier-aggregation capable
terminal, e.g. a LTE Release 10 terminal, behaves similarly to a
legacy terminal. Upon successful connection to the network, via a
first carrier, a terminal may--depending on its own capabilities
and the network--be configured with additional component carriers
in the uplink and/or downlink. Configuration of these carriers is
based on Radio Resource Control (RRC). Due to the heavy signaling
and rather slow speed of RRC signaling, it is envisioned that a
terminal may often be configured with multiple component carriers
even though not all of them are used at a given instant. If a
terminal is configured on multiple component carriers this implies
it has to monitor all downlink component carriers for the
corresponding Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and
Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). This implies that a wider
receiver bandwidth, higher sampling rates, etc., must generally be
active, resulting in high power consumption for the mobile
terminal.
[0009] To mitigate these problems, LTE Rel-10 supports a component
carrier activation procedure, in addition to the configuration
procedures. Accordingly, the terminal monitors only configured and
activated component carriers for PDCCH and PDSCH. Since activation
of component carriers is based on Medium Access Control (MAC)
control elements--which are faster than RRC
signaling--activation/de-activation can follow the number of
component carriers that is required to fulfil the current data rate
needs. Upon arrival of large data amounts, multiple component
carriers are activated, used for data transmission, and then
de-activated if not needed anymore. All but one component carrier,
the downlink Primary component carrier (DL PCC), can be
de-activated. Note that the PCC is not necessarily the same for all
terminals in the cell, i.e. different terminals may be configured
with different Primary component carriers. Activation therefore
provides the possibility to configure multiple component carriers
but only activate them on an as-needed basis. Most of the time a
terminal would have one or very few component carriers activated,
resulting in a lower reception bandwidth and thus lower battery
consumption.
[0010] Scheduling of a component carrier is done on the PDCCH via
downlink assignments. Control information on the PDCCH is formatted
as a Downlink Control Information (DCI) message. In Release 8, a
terminal only operates with one downlink and one uplink component
carrier. As a result, the associations between downlink assignment,
uplink grants and the corresponding downlinks and uplinks component
carriers are clear. In Release 10, however, two modes of carrier
aggregation need to be distinguished. The first case is very
similar to the operation of multiple Release 8 or 9 terminals. In
this mode a downlink assignment or uplink grant contained in a DCI
message transmitted on a component carrier is either valid for the
downlink component carrier itself or for a corresponding uplink
component carrier. The association of uplink and downlink component
carriers with one another can be cell-specific or UE-specific
linking. In a second mode of operation, a DCI message is augmented
with an indicator that specifies a component carrier, the Carrier
Indicator Field (CIF). A DCI containing a downlink assignment with
CIF is valid for the downlink component carrier indicated with the
CIF. Likewise, a DCI containing an uplink grant with CIF is valid
for the indicated uplink component carrier. This is referred to as
cross-carrier scheduling.
[0011] It should be noted that the inventive techniques disclosed
herein are not restricted to the particular terminology used here.
It also should be noted that during the development of the
standards for carrier aggregation in LTE, various terms have been
used to describe, for example, component carriers. Those skilled in
the art will appreciate, then, that the techniques of the present
disclosure are therefore applicable to systems and situations where
terms like multi-cell or dual-cell operation are used. In this
disclosure, the term "primary serving cell" or "PCell" refers to a
cell configured on a primary component carrier, PCC. A user
equipment which is capable of carrier aggregation may, in addition
to the PCell, also aggregate one or more secondary serving cells,
"SCells". The SCells are cells configured on secondary component
carriers, SCCs. Note that "cell" in this context refers to a
network object, whereas "component carrier" or "carrier" refers to
the physical resource, i.e. frequency band, that the cell is
configured to use.
[0012] In the subsequent discussions, a basic heterogeneous network
deployment scenario with two cell layers, here referred to as
"macro layer" and "pico layer", respectively, is assumed. No
specific assumptions are made regarding the characteristics of the
different layers except that they correspond to cells of
substantially different size of their respective coverage area,
fundamentally defined by the coverage area of the basic control
signals/channels, such as Primary Synchronization Channel, (PSS),
Secondary Synchronization Channel (SSS), Physical Broadcast Channel
(PBCH), Cell Specific Reference Signals (CRS), PDCCH, etc.
Especially, what is referred to herein as a "pico layer" can be a
micro layer, a conventional outdoor or indoor pico layer, a layer
consisting of relays, or a Home e-Node B (HeNB) layer.
[0013] Various inter-cell interference scenarios can be anticipated
for co-channel heterogeneous network deployments. FIG. 4
illustrates three scenarios that may cause severe interference.
Cases (a) and (b) involve an HeNB operating in Closed Subscriber
Group (CSG) mode. In the CSG mode, access to the HeNB is granted
only to those subscribers that are members of a Closed Subscriber
Group associated with the HeNB. The left-hand side of FIG. 4
illustrates how a HeNB in a femto cell causes interference towards
a macro cell user that has no access to the femto cell (case (a)),
and how a macro cell edge user with no access to a particular femto
cell may cause interference towards the HeNB (case (b)). Inter-cell
interference is indicated by the dotted arrows.
[0014] The right-hand side of FIG. 4, case (c), illustrates how the
interference from a macro evolved-Node B (eNB) towards a pico or
femto cell edge user increases, up to A, if path-loss-based
serving-cell selection is used instead of selection based on the
strongest received downlink signal. The solid and dotted lines
illustrate Rx power, and the dashed lines show 1/pathloss. To
understand why this increase in interference occurs, assume that
the user equipment is in close proximity to the pico base station,
but far away from the macro eNB. If the UE performs path-loss based
cell selection the foot print of the pico eNB increases, i.e. the
UE connects to the pico eNB where otherwise, using received signal
power-based cell selection, it would have connected to the macro
eNB since the received power is stronger. This implies that
interfering signals from the macro eNB are stronger than desired
signals from the pico eNB. On the uplink, however, the situation
improves since the UE connects to that eNB to which it sees the
lowest pathloss and thus the received power at the eNB is
maximized.
[0015] The worst inter-cell interference issue in co-channel
heterogeneous network deployments in LTE arise with respect to
resources that cannot benefit from inter-cell interference
coordination (ICIC). For schedulable data transmissions, such as
PDSCH and Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), inter-cell
interference can be mitigated through inter-cell coordination, such
as by via soft or hard physical resource partitioning. Coordination
information can be exchanged across layers/cells via .lamda.2
interfaces, the standard interfaces between LTE radio base stations
(eNBs). However, ICIC is not possible for signals that need to be
transmitted on specific resources, e.g. parts of system
information.
[0016] It is desirable that legacy mobile terminals (user
equipments, or UEs, in 3GPP terminology) can operate and benefit
from heterogeneous network deployments, such as by accessing any
available pico layers to improve uplink performance, even when the
received signal power from the macro layer is significantly higher.
Such cell selection can be achieved, for example, by use of an
offset applied to Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP)
measurements carried out by the UE (corresponding to A in FIG. 4).
The current specification allows for an offset up to 24 dB, which
should be sufficient for most heterogeneous network scenarios.
[0017] To mitigate severe downlink inter-cell interference from
macro eNBs towards control regions of pico subframes, operating
layers on different carriers appears to be the only option to
ensure robust communications for legacy mobile terminals in
heterogeneous network deployments. This implies that the whole
system bandwidth will not always be available for legacy mobile
terminals and may result in reduced user throughputs. One example
of reduced throughput would be a split of a contiguous system
bandwidth of 20 MHz into two carries, e.g. 10 MHz bandwidth on each
carrier.
[0018] As pointed out above, operating different layers on
different non-overlapping carrier frequencies may lead to
resource-utilization inefficiency. With the heterogeneous network
illustration depicted in FIG. 5, this would imply that the overall
available spectrum consists of two carriers f1 and f2, with f1 and
f2 being exclusively used in the macro and pico layers,
respectively. In the subsequent discussions, it is assumed that the
layers are synchronized with time aligned eNB transmissions and
that f1 and f2 have non-overlapping frequency bands.
[0019] In many cases it can be assumed that the pico layer is
deployed to carry the main part of the traffic, and especially, to
provide the highest data rates, while the macro layer provides
full-area coverage, i.e., to fill any coverage holes within the
pico layer. In such a case, it is desirable that the full
bandwidth, corresponding to carriers f1 and f2, is available for
data transmission within the pico layer. One can also envision
cases when it is desirable, that the full bandwidth (f1 and f2) is
available for data transmission also within the macro layer.
[0020] As already mentioned, sharing of the resources, i.e.
operation on the same set of carriers, between the cell layers for
data transmission can be accomplished by means of Inter-Cell
Interference Coordination (ICIC) methods that can be more or less
dynamic depending on the coordination capabilities between the
layers, and their constituent radio base stations. However,
interference concerns remain with respect to the transmission of
signals and/or channels that cannot rely on traditional ICIC
methods but need to be transmitted on specific, well-defined,
resources. In LTE, these include, for example, the synchronization
signals (PSS/SSS), the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), and the
layer1/layer 2 (L1/L2) control channels (PDCCH, PCFICH and
PHICH).
[0021] Clearly, all these signals must be transmitted on at least
one downlink carrier within each cell layer, as they are needed to
enable a user equipment to detect, and connect to the cell. The
downlink carrier on which these signals are always transmitted will
be referred to as the primary carrier, or primary component carrier
(PCC) in the following disclosure. It should be noted, however,
that these signals may also be transmitted on one or more secondary
component carriers, SCCs, and if this is the case, a user equipment
may receive the signals either from the PCC, or from an SCC.
[0022] For the purposes of discussion, assume that the primary
carrier, PCC, corresponds to carrier f1 in the macro layer and
carrier f2 in the pico layer.
[0023] For the downlink situation, the three cases shown in FIG. 6
are considered below, where Case 1 differ from Case 2 with respect
to the use of an Open Subscriber Group (OSG) in the former. In Case
3, both carriers, f1 and f2, are available also at the macro
layer.
[0024] In Case 1, it is assumed that Carrier f1, which is the macro
primary component carrier, or PCC, should be available for PDSCH
transmission, i.e. traffic data transmission, also within the pico
layer. It is assumed that a mobile terminal only accesses the macro
layer when the path loss to the macro layer is of the same order or
smaller, compared to the path loss to the pico layer.
[0025] In this case, the basic downlink control signals/channels
above can be transmitted on f1 also in the pico layer with no
severe interference to mobile terminals accessing the macro layer.
Thus both f1 and f2 can be deployed as "normal", release 8
compatible, carriers in the pico layer. However, a legacy mobile
terminal would only be able to access f1 close to the pico cell
site where the path loss to the pico cell is much smaller than the
path-loss to the macro cell, in order to avoid strong
control-channel interference from the macro cell. Closer to the
pico-cell border of the pico cell, carrier-aggregation capable
UE:s, e.g. Release 10 mobile terminals, would need to access on
carrier f2, to avoid strong interference to PSS/SSS and PBCH from
the macro cell. However, these mobile terminals could be scheduled
PDSCH transmissions on f1, using cross-carrier scheduling signaled
via the PDCCH on f2. Note that, to avoid interference from
cell-specific reference signals (CRS) for the macro layer,
pico-cell PDSCH transmission on f1 must rely on UE-specific
reference signals (RS) for channel estimation, at least when the UE
is close to the pico-cell border. This is because CRS are typically
transmitted on specific resources in the data region of a subframe,
so that the CRS transmitted on f1 in the macro cell will collide
with the CRS transmitted on f1 in the pico cell. One might consider
using frequency shifts of CRS across layers, but the macro CRS
would then cause interference towards data resource elements of the
pico.
[0026] In case 2, similarly to case 1, carrier f1 should be
available for PDSCH transmission also within the pico layer.
However, a mobile terminal should be able to access the macro cell
even when close to the pico cell. This scenario may occur when the
pico layer consists of HeNBs belonging to Closed Subscriber Groups
(CSGs), and when a mobile terminal not belonging to the CSG
approaches a HeNB. The mobile terminal will not be allowed access
to the HeNB, and must therefore connect to the macro cell instead.
In this case, the pico layer must not transmit the channels above
(PSS/SSS, PBCH, CRS, PDCCH, etc.) on f1, in order to avoid
interference to the mobile terminals that are accessing the macro
layer in the vicinity of a pico site. Rather, the corresponding
resource elements should be empty, i.e. muted. Thus, legacy mobile
terminals can only access the pico layer on f2 while Release 10
mobile terminals can be scheduled on both f1 and f2, in the same
way as for case 1.
[0027] In Case 3, in addition to carrier f1 being available for
PDSCH transmission within the pico layer, carrier f2 should be
available for PDSCH transmission within the macro layer.
[0028] In this case, the macro layer must not transmit the basic
downlink signals/channels above (PSS/SSS, PBCH, CRS, PDCCH, etc.)
on f2, in order to avoid interference to mobile terminals that are
accessing the pico layer and that may be in a location where
signals from the macro layer are received with much higher power,
even though the path loss to the pico layer is substantially
smaller. Rather, as with case 2, the corresponding resource
elements should be empty, i.e. muted. Thus, legacy mobile terminals
can only access the macro layer on f1 while carrier-aggregation
capable terminals, e.g. Release 10 mobile terminals, can be
scheduled in the macro layer on both f1 and f2. It should be noted
that a mobile terminal operating in this scenario can only be
scheduled on the macro layer on f2 in such a way that it does not
cause any severe interference to the pico cell, either by ensuring
that there is no mobile terminal being scheduled on the
corresponding resource in any pico cell under the coverage area of
the macro cell, or by using low power for the macro-cell
transmission, where possible.
[0029] Note that in the case where all pico cells are relatively
far from the macro-cell site, one could transmit also the basic
control signals/channels with reduced power on f2 from the
macro-cell site. However, this would make the macro-cell on f2
appear as a separate pico cell, located at the same point as the
macro cell on f1.
[0030] In LTE, the mobile terminals derive the physical cell ID for
a cell from the synchronization signals PSS/SSS. Likewise, the
number of transmit antenna ports is blindly derived from the CRC
scrambling code of the PBCH. As a result, if signals are only
transmitted with zero or reduced power on a secondary component
carrier, i.e. in an SCell, the UE is unable to determine either the
physical cell ID or the number of transmit antenna ports. The same
problem may occur even if the signals are not muted, for instance
if a UE is in the vicinity of a pico cell which is interfered by a
macro cell transmitting with high power on the same carrier. In
this case, the UE may not be able to hear and/or decode the
synchronization signals from the pico cell due to the severe
interference.
[0031] In LTE, the physical cell ID is used to derive uplink
demodulation reference signals (DMRS), sounding reference signals
(SRS), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scrambling, PDSCH
scrambling, physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signaling,
L1/L2 control signaling, reference signals (RS) for transmissions
using Multi-Media Broadcast over a Single Frequency Network, etc.
Likewise, the number of transmit antenna ports is needed by the
mobile terminal in LTE, as it influences the CRS, layer mapping,
precoding, L1/L2 control signaling, etc. The CRS, in particular,
are needed to perform mobility measurements, if configured on a
secondary component carrier.
[0032] Thus, if a UE is not able to receive the necessary control
and synchronization signals from a cell, it will not be able to
detect that cell or establish communication with it, e.g. to
perform carrier aggregation, or perform mobility measurements. This
may lead to reduced performance. If the UE is not able to aggregate
a secondary carrier because it can't detect the SCell, the UE may
not be able to use its full bandwidth capacity, leading to lower
throughput. If the UE is not able to receive reference signals and
perform mobility measurements on a neighboring cell, the UE may end
up being served by a less-than-optimal cell, which will reduce
performance.
SUMMARY
[0033] It is therefore an object of the present disclosure to
provide mechanisms for improving performance and resource
utilization in wireless networks.
[0034] As detailed further below, some embodiments set forth in
this disclosure describe techniques to enable signaling of physical
cell ID and number of transmit antenna ports for another component
carrier on a component carrier. In particular, some embodiments
relate to methods applicable in a system consisting of at least two
cells, wherein information regarding the cell identity, or the
number of transmit antenna ports, or both, is transmitted over a
second cell signal.
[0035] Various embodiments in which this solution is embodied in
the radio base station and the information is conveyed and
transmitted from the radio-base-station are provided. These
embodiments include solutions wherein the radio base station
provides the aforementioned information by means of dedicated
signaling, i.e., it is provided to specific mobile terminals with
messages intended for each UE separately. In other embodiments, the
information may be provided by broadcasting, such that the
information may be simultaneously received by multiple user
equipments.
[0036] Corresponding receiver methods in the mobile terminals are
also covered by the present disclosure.
[0037] In some embodiments, a method in a user equipment is
provided. The user equipment receives, over a first cell configured
on a carrier frequency, at least one parameter associated with a
second cell configured on a carrier frequency. The at least one
parameter comprises a cell identity. The user equipment then
derives at least one physical layer characteristic for the second
cell based on the received at least one parameter, thereby enabling
the user equipment to receive transmissions over the second
cell.
[0038] In some embodiments, a method in a network node is provided.
The network node serves a first cell configured on a carrier
frequency. The network node transmits, over the first cell, at
least one parameter associated with a second cell configured on a
carrier frequency. The at least one parameter comprises a cell
identity. The network node also transmits an indication to use the
at least one parameter to derive at least one physical layer
characteristic for the second cell.
[0039] In some embodiments, a user equipment is provided,
comprising a transceiver and one or more processing circuits. The
processing circuits are configured to receive, over a first cell
configured on a carrier frequency, at least one parameter
associated with a second cell configured on a carrier frequency.
The at least one parameter comprises a cell identity. The
processing circuits are further configured to derive at least one
physical layer characteristic for the second cell based on the
received at least one parameter, thereby enabling the user
equipment to receive transmissions over the second cell.
[0040] In some embodiments, a network node is provided, comprising
a transceiver and one or more processing circuits. The processing
circuits are configured to transmit, over a first cell configured
on a carrier frequency, at least one parameter associated with a
second cell configured on a carrier frequency, wherein the at least
one parameter comprises a cell identity. The processing circuits
are further configured to transmit an indication to use the at
least one parameter to derive at least one physical layer
characteristic for the second cell.
[0041] By transmitting parameters associated with a second cell
over a first cell, it is made possible for a user equipment to
acquire these parameters, and use them to derive necessary physical
layer characteristics for the first cell, even if the user
equipment is not able to detect control and/or synchronization
signals in the second cell. Once the physical layer characteristics
have been derived, the user equipment may receive transmissions in
the second cell, for instance to perform measurements, or to use
the second cell as an SCell.
[0042] Thus, an advantage of some embodiments is that a user
equipment may gain access to additional resources, thereby
increasing the bandwidth available to the user equipment.
[0043] A further advantage of some embodiments is that throughput
and/or channel quality may be improved, as the user equipment is
able to perform measurements and possibly be handed over to a
better cell, which it could not otherwise have detected.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0044] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the LTE downlink
physical resource.
[0045] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the LTE
time-domain structure.
[0046] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating Carrier
Aggregation.
[0047] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating inter-cell
interference scenarios.
[0048] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating frequency
separation between different layers in a heterogeneous network.
[0049] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating different
deployment options for heterogeneous networks.
[0050] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating muting in a
heterogeneous network.
[0051] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating inter-cell
interference coordination (ICIC).
[0052] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a wireless
communications network according to an embodiment.
[0053] FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating a method according to
an embodiment.
[0054] FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating a method according to
an embodiment.
[0055] FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating a wireless
communications network according to an embodiment.
[0056] FIG. 13 is a flow chart illustrating a method according to
an embodiment.
[0057] FIG. 14 is a flow chart illustrating a method according to
an embodiment.
[0058] FIG. 14 is a flow chart illustrating a method according to
an embodiment.
[0059] FIG. 16 is a flow chart illustrating a method according to
an embodiment.
[0060] FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating a method according to
an embodiment.
[0061] FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating a user equipment
according to an embodiment.
[0062] FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a network node
according to an embodiment.
ABBREVIATIONS
CC Component Carrier
CIF Carrier Indicator Field
CRS Cell Specific Reference Signals
CSG Closed Subscriber Group
DCI Downlink Control Information
HeNB Home eNB
ICIC Inter-Cell Interference Coordination
[0063] MBSFN Multi-Media Broadcast over a Single Frequency
Network
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
OSG Open Subscriber Group
PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel
PCC Primary Component Carrier
PCFICH Physical Control Format Indicator Channel
PDCCH Physical Downlink Control CHannel
PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel
PHICH Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel
PSS Primary Synchronization Channel
PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel
PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel
RRC Radio Resource Control
RS Reference Signals
SRS Sounding Reference Signals
SSS Secondary Synchronization Channel
UL DM RS UL Demodulation Reference Signals
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0064] As explained above, in certain scenarios it is necessary to
reduce, or even set to zero, the transmission power of PSS/SSS
and/or PBCH on one component carrier, in order to protect
corresponding signals transmitted from another node. This is
illustrated in FIG. 7, which shows how a macro cell protects
PSS/SSS and PBCH from a pico cell by transmitting its corresponding
signals with zero/reduced power on carrier f2. If a mobile terminal
shall be able to connect to the macro cell even close to the pico
cell, e.g. if the pico cell is a CSG cell to which the terminal
does not have access, then the pico cell has to transmit PSS/SSS
and PBCH with zero or reduced power on f1. This means that a mobile
terminal may not be able to derive certain important parameters
associated with the component carrier which is muted. For instance,
the cell ID and number of TX antenna ports cannot be determined if
the PSS/SSS and PBCH can't be detected. Without knowledge of the
cell ID and/or the number of TX antenna ports corresponding to a
given cell, or a given component carrier, the mobile terminal
cannot determine reference signals, scrambling sequences, etc. for
that component carrier, e.g. SCell. As already mentioned, the
problem is not limited to scenarios where muting is applied, but
may occur whenever the PSS/SSS and/or PBCH cannot be detected, for
instance due to severe interference from a neighboring cell. In all
these cases, the end result is that the mobile terminal will be
unable to detect the presence of the cell, perform measurements,
and/or establish communication with the cell.
[0065] However, even if the mobile terminal is not able to detect
the synchronization and broadcast channels, it may still be
possible and beneficial for the terminal to establish communication
with the cell. As mentioned earlier, synchronization and system
information, such as PSS/SSS and PBCH, must be transmitted on
certain well-defined resources. This is illustrated in FIG. 8,
where a dotted square inside the data region schematically
illustrates the location of synchronization channels. These
channels are always transmitted in the same location in cells A and
B, and if cell A and B use the same carrier frequency, interference
will result. However, for data in the data region it is possible to
use ICIC methods to ensure that transmissions do not collide
between cells A and B. In this example, the frequency resources in
the data region have been partitioned so that cell A uses one part
of the data region, while cell B uses another part, as indicated by
the slashed regions in FIG. 8. Thus, the data regions will not
interfere with each other. Provided that a mobile terminal could
detect and establish communications with both cells A and B, the
mobile terminal should have no problem receiving and/or
transmitting data that is comprised in the data region.
[0066] In various embodiments of the present disclosure, the
above-mentioned problem is addressed by transmitting at least one
parameter associated with a cell, e.g. a secondary cell (SCell), in
another cell, e.g. a primary cell (PCell). In other words, a
parameter such as the cell ID of the cell, e.g. secondary serving
cell (SCell) that is configured on the carrier frequency, e.g.
component carrier which transmits PSS/SSS with reduced or zero
power is signaled in another cell. Also, the number of transmit
antenna ports a component carrier is configured with may be
signaled in another cell if the PBCH cannot be detected, e.g.
because it is transmitted with reduced/zero power. Furthermore, in
some scenarios it may be possible to transmit CRS with reduced/zero
power--in such cases it is possible to signal this to the terminal,
to avoid unspecified behavior in the terminal.
[0067] Thus, the mobile terminal receives the required parameters
for a cell, e.g. SCell, which are not possible to detect and/or
derive from the cell's own transmissions, from another cell, e.g.
PCell, which the terminal is able to detect. With knowledge of cell
ID and number of TX antenna ports, the mobile terminal is capable
of reconstructing reference signals, scrambling sequences, etc.
needed for uplink and downlink operation in the cell, e.g. SCell.
Other parameters, such as carrier frequency, bandwidth and cyclic
prefix length indication, may also be signaled in the other cell,
e.g. PCell. However, in certain circumstances the mobile terminal
may be able to assume default values for some or all parameters;
thus, it may not be necessary to signal all these parameters in the
other cell. As an example, a mobile terminal may assume that the
number of antenna ports, bandwidth etc. are the same in the SCell
as in the PCell, if these parameters are not signaled in the
PCell.
[0068] To perform mobility measurements, a mobile terminal needs to
be able to reconstruct the cell-specific reference signals (CRS)
and needs to know the carrier frequency of the other cell, e.g.
SCell (secondary serving cell). Techniques for signaling the
carrier frequency of a SCell to a mobile have previously been
disclosed. For instance, see R2-103427, Change Request CR 0230 to
36.300, "Stage 2 description of Carrier Aggregation", 3GPP TSG-RAN
WG2 Meeting #70, Montreal, Canada, 10th-14th May 2010. Given
knowledge of the carrier frequency of the other cell, e.g. SCell,
combined with the techniques disclosed herein for signaling the
cell ID, a terminal can reconstruct the CRS and thus perform
mobility measurements in the other cell, e.g. SCell.
[0069] Some deployment scenarios may require that the CRS are
transmitted with reduced/zero power in an SCell. In this case,
demodulation by the mobile terminal relies on UE-specific reference
signals. Even if a terminal is now capable to reconstruct the CRS
it will not measure anything meaningful since no CRS are present.
To avoid undesirable mobile terminal behavior, e.g., the mobile
terminal is configured with a secondary cell SCell, but mobility
measurements indicate that this cell is not present, it may be
advantageous to signal to the terminal that no CRS are present, or
at least they are not detectable, in the SCell. In such a case, the
mobile terminal may be configured so that it does not provide any
mobility measurements based on CRS on the corresponding cell
object.
[0070] Both the cell ID and number of transmit antenna ports are
generally static parameters, and thus are expected to change only
on a very slow basis. A good signaling choice is therefore to
signal cell ID and the number of transmit antenna ports of a cell,
e.g. SCell, using semi-statically signaling, e.g. RRC signaling, in
another cell, e.g. the primary serving cell (PCell) or another
SCell.
[0071] This signaling is not needed in all scenarios, therefore
signaling of these values may be enabled on an optional basis. This
may be achieved e.g. by defining information elements for "Number
of TX antenna ports of SCell" and "Cell ID of SCell" that are
optionally included in a message of the semi-static signaling
protocol. The required information may be transmitted to the
terminal via dedicated signaling or via broadcast. Accordingly, a
terminal configured with at least one secondary cell, SCell,
receives required information regarding this secondary cell, SCell,
via dedicated signaling or broadcasting. Thus, on top of previously
defined system parameters a terminal may optionally receive
additional parameters defined in this disclosure.
[0072] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that cells
configured on separate frequencies may sometimes use the same cell
identity. In such cases, it may be unnecessary to explicitly signal
this information to the mobile terminal, even if it is realized
that a mobile terminal needs this information. Thus, according to
one specific embodiment, if a terminal does not receive the newly
defined information element "Cell ID of SCell", then it reuses the
cell ID from an already configured cell, either from the primary
serving cell PCell or another configured secondary cell, e.g. from
a second SCell that is used to convey system parameters for a first
SCell. If a terminal, however, receives the information element
"Cell ID of SCell" it will use this parameter to derive cell ID in
the SCell.
[0073] This same mechanism is also applicable to the new parameter
"Number of TX antenna ports of SCell". If a terminal does not
receive this information element, it will apply the number of TX
antenna ports in the primary serving cell PCell or another
configured secondary cell, e.g., from a second SCell that is used
to convey system parameters for the first SCell. If the information
element "Number of TX antenna ports of SCell" is received by the
terminal, on the other hand, it will assume this parameter to
derive number of TX antenna ports in the SCell.
[0074] If no CRS are transmitted, or if CRS are transmitted with
reduced/zero power, in a secondary cell SCell this may lead to
unspecified mobile terminal behavior. To avoid this, the optional
information element "CRS not present in SCell" may be transmitted,
in some embodiments. If this information element is received by the
terminal it does not assume the presence of CRS in the secondary
cell SCell. If this information element is not received the
terminal assumes CRS are transmitted in the secondary cell
SCell.
[0075] A method in a user equipment according to an embodiment will
now be described with reference to FIG. 9 and the flowchart in FIG.
10.
[0076] FIG. 9 is a schematic drawing illustrating a wireless
network 900 comprising a macro cell 910 and a pico cell, where the
coverage area of the pico cell is contained within the coverage
area of the macro cell 910. The macro cell 910 operates on carrier
frequency f2, and is served by macro base station 940, e.g. an LTE
eNB. The pico cell operates on carrier frequencies, or component
carriers, f1 and f2, where f1 is a different carrier frequency from
f2. Thus, there are actually two cells configured in the pico cell:
a first cell 970 configured on component carrier f1, and a second
cell 980 configured on component carrier f2. As described above,
synchronization signals, reference signals, etc. will be
transmitted in both cells 970 and 980. The pico cell, comprising
cells 970 and 980, is served by pico base station 950, which may
for instance be an LTE home base station, HeNB. A user equipment
920 is located within the coverage area of both the macro cell 910,
and the cells 970 and 980. In this example, the user equipment 920
is a mobile terminal capable of carrier aggregation, e.g. an LTE
Release 10-compliant UE. The user equipment 920 is initially
connected to the first cell 970, which is configured on f1; thus,
from the point of view of user equipment 920, the first cell 970 is
the primary serving cell, or PCell. It would be advantageous for
user equipment 920 to also add the second cell 980 as a secondary
cell (SCell), since this would increase the available bandwidth for
the user equipment 920. However, the assumption in this example is
that user equipment 920 is not able to detect and/or decode control
and synchronization information transmitted over the second cell
980, i.e. the cell configured on carrier frequency f2. As explained
earlier, this problem may occur e.g. because the macro base station
940 is transmitting at a much higher power on f2, causing so much
interference in the cell 980, and in particular on the
synchronization channels PSS/SSS and broadcast channel PBCH, that
the signal from the pico base station 950 on carrier f2 is not
detectable. Therefore, user equipment 920 is not able to acquire
necessary parameters, e.g. cell id, for the second cell 980, and it
thus cannot add the second cell as an SCell using standard
mechanisms.
[0077] According to the method, the user equipment 920 receives,
1010, a request to add a secondary cell, SCell. The request is
received over the first cell 970. The request to add the SCell
comprises the cell identity of the second cell 980. In some
variants, the cell identity is the physical cell identity of the
second cell 980.
[0078] In some variants of this embodiment, the request may also
comprise other parameters associated with the second cell 980. For
example, one or more of the parameters carrier frequency, number of
transmit antenna ports, bandwidth, or cyclic prefix length
indication related to the second cell 980 may be received over the
first cell 970. However, if the user equipment 920 does not receive
one or more of these parameters, the user equipment 920 may assume
default values for any parameters that were not received. In
particular, the user equipment 920 may assume that the non-received
parameters have the same value in the second cell 980 as in the
first cell 970. Therefore, it is not necessary that all parameters
associated with the second cell 980 are received over the first
cell 970.
[0079] In some variants, the user equipment 920 also receives,
1020, an indication over the first cell 970 to use the received
parameters, i.e. the cell id and any additional parameters, to
derive at least one physical layer characteristic for the second
cell 980. In other words, the indication tells the user equipment
920 that it should derive the physical layer characteristic from
the received parameter, instead of trying to detect it in the air.
An advantage of receiving the indication is that the user equipment
does not need to spend time and resources on unnecessary attempts
to decode signals from the second cell 980, which could not be
successful anyway. However, in other variants the user equipment
920 always uses the received parameters, if present, to derive the
physical layer characteristics. In yet other variants, the user
equipment 920 first tries to detect the parameters for the second
cell 980 over the air, and if this fails it uses the parameters
received over the first cell 970.
[0080] It should be noted that the indication may be received in
the same message as the at least one parameter, or it may be
received in a separate message. The indication may be realized as a
flag, e.g. using one or more unused bits of an existing message. In
another alternative, the mere presence of the at least one
parameter may be regarded as the indication. Thus, the indication
may be implicitly present in the message. The indication may be
received on a broadcast channel in the first cell 970.
[0081] After having received the cell id and possibly other
parameters over the first cell 970, the user equipment derives,
1050, at least one physical layer characteristic for the second
cell 980, based on the parameters. The physical layer
characteristics may be e.g. scrambling codes, reference signal
configurations, or control signaling configurations. In particular,
the cell identity may be used to derive the cell-specific reference
signal configuration, DMRS, SRS, or MBSFN reference signal
configuration, reference signal hopping pattern, PUSCH hopping
pattern, downlink control channel configuration, uplink control
channel configuration, and scrambling codes for PUSCH, PDSCH, and
for L1/L2 control signaling. It is pointed out that it is well
known in the art how to derive these characteristics, once the
required parameters are known. Thus, this procedure will not be
described in further detail in this disclosure.
[0082] Once the user equipment has derived at least one physical
layer characteristic for the second cell 980, the user equipment
980 adds, 1060, a secondary cell corresponding to the received cell
identity. That is to say, the user equipment 980 adds the second
cell 980 as a secondary serving cell, or SCell. It is pointed out
that once the necessary physical layer characteristics of the
second cell 980 have been derived, the second cell 980 may be added
as an SCell using known procedures, which will not be described
further here.
[0083] It is now possible for the user equipment 980 to use the
additional resources provided by the SCell, i.e. the user equipment
980 may receive transmissions over component carrier f2, i.e. over
the second cell 980. The user equipment 980 may additionally
perform uplink transmissions on the uplink carrier which is linked
to component carrier f2.
[0084] In a variant of this embodiment, the user equipment 920
receives, 1030, over the first cell 970, an indication that no
cell-specific reference signals are detectable in the second cell
980. The user equipment 920 may, in response to this indication,
refrain from performing any measurement on cell-specific reference
signals in the second cell, e.g. the user equipment 920 may refrain
from mobility measurements based on CRS. This may be advantageous
in cases where the CRS are muted, i.e. transmitted with reduced or
zero power, in the second cell 980, as an attempt to measure on the
undetectable CRS may result in unspecified behavior in the
terminal. The same applies in deployments where CRS are
transmitted, but high interference from neighboring cells makes it
impossible to receive the CRS with sufficient good quality.
[0085] In a further variant, the user equipment 920 receives, 1040,
over the first cell 960, information indicating a user-specific
reference signal configuration associated with the user equipment
920 in the second cell 980. This may be beneficial for instance
when the cell-specific reference signals cannot be detected. As
mentioned above, CRS are more prone to interference from other
cells since they are typically transmitted on predefined resources.
However, user-specific reference signals are transmitted in a
pattern specific to the user equipment 920, so that they do not
collide with reference signals transmitted in other cells.
Therefore, it may be more advantageous for the user equipment 920
to perform measurements on user-specific reference signals, when
these are available.
[0086] Thus, according to this embodiment, the cell identity of the
second cell 980 is transmitted over the first cell 970. The user
equipment may use this cell id to derive various
synchronization-related parameters associated with the second cell
980. This will enable the user equipment 920 to receive
transmissions over the second cell 980.
[0087] It should be noted that in FIG. 9, cell 980 has been
indicated with a dashed circle, and drawn slightly smaller than
cell 970 for ease of viewing. This does not necessarily reflect the
relation between the actual geographical coverage areas of cells
970 and 980. As the skilled person will realize, cells 970 and 980
may have the same geographical coverage, or cell 970 may be smaller
than cell 980, or their coverage areas may differ in various other
ways due to e.g. different fading characteristics. Also, the actual
coverage areas are not necessarily circular. It is further pointed
out that, although the present embodiment is described in the
context of the scenario of FIG. 9, the described method is
applicable in other scenarios as well--for instance, in the
scenario of FIG. 4(b), where the user equipment cannot hear a macro
cell because of interference from a nearby CSG cell, or in a
scenario where transmission on one carrier frequency is muted to
protect signals in another cell, as described above. Thus, cells
970 and 980 may in other scenarios be served by a macro base
station.
[0088] Furthermore, cells 970 and 980 are not necessarily served by
the same physical base station. The cells could, for instance,
emanate from different remote radio heads, or they could even be
served by two neighboring base stations, assuming that the coverage
areas of cells 970 and 980 overlap, and that carrier aggregation
across multiple base stations is supported.
[0089] It should be noted that although the cell id and any
additional parameters have been described here as being comprised
in the request to add the secondary cell, it is equally possible to
receive one or more of the parameters in a separate message. Also,
one or more of the parameters may be received over a broadcast
channel in the first cell 970, rather than in a dedicated message
to the user equipment 920.
[0090] A method in a network node according to an embodiment will
now be described, with reference to FIG. 9 and the flowchart in
FIG. 11.
[0091] The scenario shown in FIG. 9 has already been described in
connection with the previous embodiment. The present embodiment
relates to a method performed in the network node 950, which serves
the first cell 970 configured on carrier frequency f1, and the
second cell 980 configured on carrier frequency f2. A user
equipment 920 is connected to the first cell 970. As mentioned
above, network node 950 may be realized as a pico or femto base
station, e.g. as an LTE HeNB, but in some alternative scenarios the
network node 950 may be a macro base station, such as an LTE
eNB.
[0092] In this embodiment, the network node 950 serves the second
cell 980, and transmits, 1120, synchronization signals, reference
signals or parts of system information over the second cell 980
with reduced or zero power. As explained above, a reason for this
muting may be that there is another nearby cell which is also
configured on carrier frequency f2, and which is heavily interfered
by transmissions in cell 980. Thus, the network node 950 may mute
certain signaling in order to protect another cell. However, this
will also prevent user equipment 920 from detecting the cell
980.
[0093] According to the method, the network node 950 transmits,
1110, a request to add a secondary cell, SCell. The request is
transmitted over the first cell 970. The request to add the SCell
comprises the cell identity of the second cell 980. In some
variants, the cell identity is the physical cell identity of the
second cell 980.
[0094] In some variants of this embodiment, the request may also
comprise one or more other parameters associated with the second
cell 980, e.g. carrier frequency, number of transmit antenna ports,
bandwidth, cyclic prefix length indication.
[0095] The network node 950 also transmits, 1110, an indication to
use the at least one parameter to derive at least one physical
layer characteristic for the second cell 980. In other words, the
indication tells the user equipment 920 that it should derive the
physical layer characteristic from the received parameter, instead
of trying to detect it in the air. The indication may be
transmitted in the same message as the at least one parameter, or
in a separate message. The indication may be realized as a flag,
e.g. using one or more unused bits of an existing message.
Alternatively, the indication may be transmitted on a broadcast
channel in the first cell 970.
[0096] In some further variants, the network node 950 transmits a
parameter only if it has a different value in the second cell 980
than in the first cell 970, or if it has a different value than a
predetermined default value. For example, if the second cell 980
uses the same bandwidth and number of antenna ports as the first
cell 970, those two parameters are not transmitted over the first
cell 970. The user equipment 920 may then assume that the
non-transmitted parameters have the same value as in the first
cell, or that they have the same value as the predetermined default
value.
[0097] In a variant of this embodiment, the network node 950
transmits, 1130, over the first cell 970, an indication that no
cell-specific reference signals are detectable in the second cell
980. The user equipment 920 may, in response to this indication,
refrain from performing any measurement on cell-specific reference
signals in the second cell, as described above.
[0098] In some further variants, the network node 950 transmits,
1140, over the first cell, information indicating a user-specific
reference signal configuration associated with the user equipment
920 in the second cell 980. The user-specific reference signal
configuration may be used by the user equipment 920 as described in
the previous embodiment.
[0099] By transmitting the necessary parameters over the first cell
970, the network node 950 enables the user equipment 980 to derive
physical layer characteristics that are required to add the second
cell 980 as an SCell. Once the user equipment 920 has successfully
added the SCell, network node 950 may transmit information to user
equipment 920 over component carrier f2, i.e. over the second cell
980.
[0100] As already stated in connection with the previous
embodiment, the circles indicating cells 970 and 980 do not
necessarily indicate the shape of the actual geographical coverage
areas of the cells. It is further pointed out that in some
scenarios, the network node 950 serves only the first cell 970,
whereas the second cell 980 is served by another network node. This
assumes that carrier aggregation across multiple nodes is
supported, and that network node 950 acquires the required
parameters associated with the second cell 980, e.g. from a message
received from the network node which serves the second cell 980. It
is also pointed out that, similarly to the previous embodiment, the
present method is applicable even if muting is not applied in the
second cell 980, since there could be various other reasons why
user equipment 920 fails to detect the second cell 980.
[0101] It should be noted that although the cell id and any
additional parameters have been described here as being comprised
in the request to add the secondary cell, it is equally possible to
transmit one or more of the parameters in a separate message. Also,
one or more of the parameters may be transmitted over a broadcast
channel in the first cell 970, rather than in a dedicated message
to the user equipment 920.
[0102] A method in a user equipment according to another embodiment
will now be described with reference to FIG. 12 and the flowchart
in FIG. 13. This embodiment relates to mobility measurements
performed by a user equipment 1210 in connected mode.
[0103] FIG. 12 is a schematic drawing illustrating a wireless
network 1200 comprising a first cell 1220 and a second cell 1230,
with partly overlapping coverage areas. The first and second cells
both operate on the same carrier frequency f1. The first cell 1220
is served by network node 1240, e.g. an LTE eNB. The second cell
1230 is served by network node 1250, e.g. another LTE eNB.
Synchronization signals, reference signals, etc. will be
transmitted in both cells 1220 and 1230. A user equipment 1210 is
located within the coverage area of both cells 1220 and 1230, and
is currently connected to cell 1220. The user equipment 1210 is
moving in the direction of the arrow 1270. Thus, the user equipment
1210 is getting closer to network node 1250 and it would be
advantageous for the user equipment 1210 to perform mobility
measurements on cell 1230, so that a handover decision may
eventually be made. However, in this example the user equipment
1210 is not able to detect and/or decode information transmitted
over the second cell 1230. A possible cause of this problem is that
network node 1240 is transmitting with a higher power on f1,
causing severe interference to the synchronization channels,
broadcast channels, and/or reference signals in cell 1230. Another
possibility is that network node 1250 is transmitting with reduced
or zero power on the synchronization and/or broadcast channels, for
instance to protect nearby pico cell 1260 which is also configured
to use carrier frequency f1. Therefore, user equipment 1210 is not
able to derive necessary parameters, e.g. cell id, for the second
cell 1230, which are needed to receive the cell-specific reference
signals, CRS. Consequently, user equipment 1210 cannot perform
mobility measurements on cell 1230, which may lead to reduced
throughput for user equipment 1210 as it moves further away from
network node 1240, and possibly even to a dropped connection if the
user equipment 1210 moves into the region which is only covered by
cell 1230, without being able to detect the presence of the
cell.
[0104] According to the method, the user equipment 1210 receives,
1310, a request to perform measurements on the second cell 1230.
The request is received over the first cell 1220. The measurement
request comprises the cell identity of the second cell 1230. In
some variants, the cell identity is the physical cell identity of
the second cell 1230.
[0105] In some variants of this embodiment, the request may also
comprise other parameters associated with the second cell 1230. For
example, one or more of the parameters carrier frequency, number of
transmit antenna ports, bandwidth, cyclic prefix length indication
related to the second cell 1230 may be received over the first cell
1220. The number of transmit antennas influence the CRS because
each antenna port transmits its own cell-specific reference
signals. To be able to reconstruct the CRS the user equipment 1210
needs to know if they are present or not; thus, it needs to know
how many antenna ports are used for transmission. However, if the
user equipment 1210 does not receive one or more of these
parameters, the user equipment 1210 may assume default values for
any parameters that were not received. In particular, the user
equipment 1210 may assume that the non-received parameters have the
same value in the second cell 1230 as in the first cell 1220.
Therefore, it is not necessary that all parameters associated with
the second cell 1230 are received over the first cell 1220.
[0106] In some variants, the user equipment 1210 also receives,
1320, an indication over the first cell 1220 to use the received
parameters, i.e. the cell id and any additional parameters, to
derive at least one physical layer characteristic for the second
cell 1230. In other words, the indication tells the user equipment
1210 that it should derive the physical layer characteristic from
the received parameter, instead of trying to detect it in the air.
An advantage of receiving the indication is that the user equipment
does not need to spend time and resources on unnecessary attempt to
decode signals from the second cell 1230, which could not be
successful anyway. However, in other variants the user equipment
1210 always uses the received parameters, if present, to derive the
physical layer characteristics. In yet other variants, the user
equipment 1210 first tries to detect the parameters for the second
cell 1230 over the air, and if this fails it uses the parameters
received over the first cell 1220.
[0107] It should be noted that the indication may be received in
the same message as the at least one parameter, or it may be
received in a separate message. The indication may be realized as a
flag, e.g. using one or more unused bits of an existing message. In
another alternative, the mere presence of the at least one
parameter may be regarded as the indication. Thus, the indication
may be implicitly present in the message. The indication may be
received on a broadcast channel in the first cell 1220.
[0108] After having received the cell id and possibly other
parameters over the first cell 1220, the user equipment 1210
derives, 1330, the cell-specific reference signal configuration for
the second cell 1230, based on the parameters. To be able to derive
the CRS, the user equipment 1210 may need to derive other physical
layer characteristics as well, e.g. the PBCH scrambling code.
[0109] Once the CRS configuration has been determined, the user
equipment 1210 performs a measurement of the CRS of the second cell
1230 using the derived CRS configuration. In other words, the user
equipment 1210 performs a mobility measurement on cell 1230.
[0110] The user equipment 1210 then transmits a measurement report
comprising the result of the measurement to its serving network
node, i.e. network node 1240 in this example. The serving network
node may use the measurement report to make a handover decision,
possibly handing over the connection with user equipment 1210 to
cell 1230.
[0111] In the present example, it has been assumed that user
equipment 1210 receives the required parameters from its serving
cell, i.e. cell 1220. However, it is also possible that the user
equipment 1210 is not connected to the first cell 1220, but to a
third cell (not shown in FIG. 12). If the parameters for the second
cell 1230 are broadcast in the first cell 1220, the user equipment
1210 may be able to acquire the parameters even though it is not
currently connected to the first cell 1220. Any measurement report
would then be sent to the serving cell.
[0112] It should be noted that although the cell id and any
additional parameters have been described here as being comprised
in the measurement request, it is equally possible to receive one
or more of the parameters in a separate message. Also, one or more
of the parameters may be received over a broadcast channel in the
first cell 1220, rather than in a dedicated message to the user
equipment 1210.
[0113] A method in a user equipment according to another embodiment
will now be described with reference to FIG. 12 and the flowchart
in FIG. 14. The basic scenario of FIG. 12 has already been
described above, i.e. user equipment 1210 is located in the mutual
coverage areas of cells 1220 and 1230, and moving in the direction
of arrow 1270 away from the coverage of cell 1220. However, in the
present embodiment, user equipment 1210 is in idle mode, and it is
desirable to perform mobility measurements on cell 1230 for the
purpose of a possible cell reselection. As already explained above,
this means that user equipment 1210 needs to measure on the
cell-specific reference signals, CRS, of cell 1230; however, the
user equipment 1210 cannot derive the CRS configuration because of
interference from cell 1220.
[0114] According to the method, the user equipment 1210 receives,
1410, at least one parameter associated with the second cell 1230.
The request is received over the first cell 1220. The at least one
parameter comprises the cell identity of the second cell 1230. In
some variants, the cell identity is the physical cell identity of
the second cell 1230.
[0115] In some variants of this embodiment, the user equipment 1210
also receives other parameters associated with the second cell
1230. For example, one or more of the parameters carrier frequency,
number of transmit antenna ports, bandwidth, cyclic prefix length
indication related to the second cell 1230 may be received over the
first cell 1220. The number of transmit antennas influence the CRS,
because each antenna port transmits its own cell-specific reference
signals. To be able to reconstruct the CRS the user equipment 1210
needs to know if they are present or not; thus, it needs to know
how many antenna ports are used for transmission. However, if the
user equipment 1210 does not receive one or more of these
parameters, the user equipment 1210 may assume default values for
any parameters that were not received. In particular, the user
equipment 1210 may assume that the non-received parameters have the
same value in the second cell 1230 as in the first cell 1220.
Therefore, it is not necessary that all parameters associated with
the second cell 1230 are received over the first cell 1220.
[0116] In some variants, the user equipment 1210 also receives,
1420, an indication over the first cell 1220 to use the received
parameters, i.e. the cell id and any additional parameters, to
derive at least one physical layer characteristic for the second
cell 1230. In yet other variants, the user equipment 1210 first
tries to detect the parameters for the second cell 1230 over the
air, and if this fails it uses the parameters received over the
first cell 1220. It should be noted that the indication may be
received in the same message as the at least one parameter, or it
may be received in a separate message. The indication may be
realized as a flag, e.g. using one or more unused bits of an
existing message. In another alternative, the mere presence of the
at least one parameter may be regarded as the indication. Thus, the
indication may be implicitly present in the message.
[0117] Note that in this embodiment, the one or more parameters,
and the indication, are all received on a broadcast channel in the
first cell 1220, since the user equipment 1210 is in idle mode.
[0118] After having received the cell id and possibly other
parameters over the first cell 1220, the user equipment 1210
derives, 1430, the cell-specific reference signal configuration for
the second cell 1230, based on the parameters. To be able to derive
the CRS, the user equipment 1210 may need to derive other physical
layer characteristics as well, e.g. the PBCH scrambling code.
[0119] Once the CRS configuration has been determined, the user
equipment 1210 performs a measurement, 1440, on the CRS of the
second cell 1230 using the derived CRS configuration. In other
words, the user equipment 1210 performs a mobility measurement on
cell 1230.
[0120] Depending on the result of the measurement, the user
equipment 1210 may decide to initiate a cell reselection procedure,
according to known mechanisms.
[0121] A method in a network node according to another embodiment
will now be described with reference to FIG. 12 and the flowchart
in FIG. 15. Here, a scenario is described where network node 1240
requests user equipment 1210 to perform mobility measurements on
cell 1230; thus, the embodiment is similar to the one described in
connection with FIG. 13 above, but here the focus is on a method
performed in the network node 1240.
[0122] According to the method, the network node 1240 transmits,
1510, a request to the user equipment 1210 to perform measurements
on the second cell 1230. The request is transmitted over the first
cell 1220. The measurement request comprises the cell identity of
the second cell 1230. In some variants, the cell identity is the
physical cell identity of the second cell 1230.
[0123] In some variants of this embodiment, the request may also
comprise other parameters associated with the second cell 1230. For
example, one or more of the parameters carrier frequency, number of
transmit antenna ports, bandwidth, cyclic prefix length indication
related to the second cell 1230 may be transmitted over the first
cell 1220. The number of transmit antennas influence the CRS
because each antenna port transmits its own cell-specific reference
signals. To be able to reconstruct the CRS the user equipment 1210
needs to know if they are present or not; thus, it needs to know
how many antenna ports are used for transmission.
[0124] The network node 1240 also transmits, 1510, an indication to
use the at least one parameter to derive at least one physical
layer characteristic for the second cell 1230. In other words, the
indication tells the user equipment 1210 that it should derive the
physical layer characteristic from the received parameter, instead
of trying to detect it in the air. The indication may be
transmitted in the same message as the at least one parameter, or
in a separate message. The indication may be realized as a flag,
e.g. using one or more unused bits of an existing message.
Alternatively, the indication may be transmitted on a broadcast
channel in the first cell 1220. In another alternative, the mere
presence of the at least one parameter may be regarded as the
indication. Thus, the indication may be implicitly present in the
message.
[0125] By transmitting the parameters and indication over the first
cell 1220, the network node 1240 enables the user equipment 1210 to
derive the necessary physical layer characteristics for the second
cell 1230. This will allow the user equipment 1210 to perform the
requested measurements even it could not initially detect cell
1230.
[0126] The network node 1240 then receives, 1530, a measurement
report from user equipment 1210. Network node 1240 may use the
measurement report to make a handover decision, possibly handing
over the connection with user equipment 1210 to cell 1230.
[0127] In some variants of this embodiment, the network node 1240
serves the second cell 1230, and transmits, 1520, synchronization
signals, reference signals or parts of system information over the
second cell 1230 with reduced or zero power. As explained above, a
reason for this muting may be that there is another nearby cell
which is also configured on carrier frequency f1, and which is
heavily interfered by transmissions in cell 1230. Thus, the network
node 1240 may mute certain signaling in order to protect pico cell
1260. However, this may also prevent user equipment 1210 from
detecting the cell 1230. It should be noted, however, that the
method is also applicable when muting is not used, since there are
various other reasons that could prevent user equipment 1210 from
detecting signals in cell 1230.
[0128] It should be noted that although the cell id and any
additional parameters have been described here as being comprised
in the measurement request, it is equally possible to transmit one
or more of the parameters in a separate message. Also, one or more
of the parameters may be transmitted over a broadcast channel in
the first cell 1220, rather than in a dedicated message to the user
equipment 1210.
[0129] A general method performed in a user equipment according to
several embodiments will now be described with reference to the
flow chart of FIG. 16.
[0130] The user equipment receives, 1610, over a first cell
configured on a carrier frequency, at least one parameter
associated with a second cell configured on a carrier frequency.
The at least one parameter comprises a cell identity.
[0131] As mentioned in the specific embodiments discussed above,
the first and second cells may be configured on the same, or
different, carrier frequencies. In some embodiments, the first cell
is the PCell of the user equipment.
[0132] In some embodiments, the user equipment also receives, 1620,
over the first cell, an indication to use the at least one
parameter to derive at least one physical characteristic for the
second cell.
[0133] In some embodiments, the user equipment also receives, 1630,
over the first cell, an indication that no CRS are detectable in
the second cell.
[0134] In some further embodiments, the user equipment receives,
1640, an indication of a user-specific reference signal
configuration over the first cell.
[0135] The user equipment then derives, 1650, at least one physical
layer characteristic for the second cell based on the received at
least one parameter, thereby enabling the user equipment to receive
transmissions over the second cell. In some embodiments, the user
equipment may proceed to add the second cell as an SCell. In other
embodiments, the user equipment may derive a CRS configuration for
the second cell, and use this to perform mobility measurements in
idle mode or connected mode.
[0136] A general method performed in a network node according to
several embodiments will now be described with reference to the
flow chart of FIG. 17. The network node serves a first cell
configured on a carrier frequency.
[0137] According to the method, the network node transmits, 1710,
over the first cell, at least one parameter associated with a
second cell configured on a carrier frequency. The at least one
parameter comprises a cell identity. The network node also
transmits an indication to use the at least one parameter to derive
at least one physical layer characteristic for the second cell. The
cell identity and possible other parameters may be comprised in a
measurement request message sent to a user equipment, or they may
be included in a request to add the second cell as an SCell.
[0138] In some embodiments, the network node serves also the second
cell, and transmits synchronization signals, reference signals, or
part of system information over the second cell with reduced or
zero power.
[0139] In some embodiments, the network node also transmits, 1730,
over the first cell, an indication that no CRS are detectable in
the second cell.
[0140] In some further embodiments, the network node transmits,
1740, an indication of a user-specific reference signal
configuration over the first cell.
[0141] FIGS. 18 and 19 illustrate example implementations of user
equipment 920, 1110, and network node 940, 1140. It is pointed out
that these devices may include computer-based circuitry, such as
one or more circuits based on microprocessors, digital signal
processors, ASICs, FPGAs, or other programmable or programmed
digital processing circuitry. The operation of these devices may be
implemented in whole or in part by configuring the device via the
execution of stored computer programs, held in memory or other
computer-readable media to which the device has access. Thus, it
should be appreciated that the processing circuits illustrated in
FIGS. 18 and 19 may be implemented in hardware, software, or a
combination of both.
[0142] FIG. 18 illustrates a user equipment 1800, comprising a
transceiver 1810 and one or more processing circuits 1820. The
processing circuits 1820 are configured to receive, over a first
cell 970 configured on a carrier frequency, at least one parameter
associated with a second cell 980 configured on a carrier
frequency. The at least one parameter comprises a cell identity.
The processing circuits 1820 are further configured to derive at
least one physical layer characteristic for the second cell 980
based on the received at least one parameter, thereby enabling the
user equipment 920 to receive transmissions over the second cell
980. The at least one parameter may further comprise one or more
of: carrier frequency, number of transmit antenna ports, bandwidth,
cyclic prefix length indication.
[0143] In some variants, the processing circuits 1820 are further
configured to receive, over the first cell 970, an indication that
the user equipment 970 should use the received at least one
parameter to derive at least one physical layer characteristic for
the second cell 980. The at least one physical layer characteristic
may comprise one or more of: a PUSCH, PDSCH, L1/L2 control
signaling or CRC of PBCH scrambling code, a cell-specific reference
signal configuration, a sounding reference signal configuration, an
MBSFN reference signal configuration, an uplink demodulation
reference signal configuration, a downlink or uplink control
signaling configuration, a reference signal hopping pattern, or a
PUSCH hopping pattern.
[0144] In some further variants, the processing circuits 1820 are
further configured to receive, over the first cell 970, an
indication that no cell-specific reference signals are detectable
in the second cell 980. The processing circuits 1820 may be further
configured to, in response to the indication that no cell-specific
reference signals are detectable, not attempt to perform any
measurement on cell-specific reference signals in the second cell
980.
[0145] In some variants, the processing circuits 1820 are further
configured to receive, over the first cell 970, information
indicating a user-specific reference signal configuration
associated with the user equipment 920 in the second cell 980.
[0146] In some variants, the processing circuits 1820 are further
configured to receive the at least one parameter over a broadcast
channel.
[0147] In some other variants, the processing circuits 1820 are
configured to receive the at least one parameter in a measurement
request. The processing circuits 1820 may be further configured to
detect the second cell (980) by means of the cell identity received
in the measurement request message. The processing circuits 1820
may be further configured to perform a measurement of a signal,
e.g. a cell-specific reference signal, received over the second
cell 980, by means of a received reference signal configuration,
and to transmit a measurement report.
[0148] In some other variants, the processing circuits 1820 are
configured to receive the at least one parameter in a request to
add a secondary cell. The processing circuits 1820 may be further
configured to add a secondary cell corresponding to the received
cell identity.
[0149] In some variants, the processing circuits 1820 are
configured to assume that, if the user equipment 920 does not
receive one or more of the parameters carrier frequency, number of
transmit antenna ports, bandwidth, or cyclic prefix length
indication, the parameters not received have the same value in the
second cell 980 as in the first cell 970.
[0150] The user equipment 1800 may comprise more than one
transceiver.
[0151] FIG. 19 illustrates a network node 1900, comprising a
transceiver 1910 and one or more processing circuits 1920. The
processing circuits 1920 are configured to transmit, over a first
cell 970 configured on a carrier frequency, at least one parameter
associated with a second cell 980 configured on a carrier
frequency, wherein the at least one parameter comprises a cell
identity. The processing circuits 1920 are further configured to
transmit an indication to use the at least one parameter to derive
at least one physical layer characteristic for the second cell 980.
The at least one parameter may further comprise one or more of:
carrier frequency, number of transmit antenna ports, bandwidth,
cyclic prefix length indication.
[0152] In some variants, the processing circuits 1920 are further
configured to transmit synchronization signals, reference signals
or parts of system information over the second cell 980 with
reduced or zero power;
[0153] In some variants, the processing circuits 1920 are further
configured to transmit, over the first cell 970, an indication that
no cell-specific reference signals are detectable in the second
cell 980.
[0154] In some variants, the processing circuits 1920 are further
configured to transmit, over the first cell 970, information
indicating a user-specific reference signal configuration
associated with a user equipment 920 in the second cell 980.
[0155] In some variants, the processing circuits 1920 are further
configured to perform the transmissions over a broadcast
channel.
[0156] In some other variants, the processing circuits 1920 are
further configured to perform the transmissions in a dedicated
message to a user equipment 920, e.g. a measurement request or a
request to add a secondary cell.
[0157] In some variants, the processing circuits 1920 are further
configured to transmit a parameter only if it has a different value
in the second cell 980 than in the first cell 970.
[0158] The network node 1900 may comprise more than one
transceiver.
[0159] The solutions described above have been detailed in
connection with carrier aggregation and heterogeneous networks, as
specified for LTE networks. However, those skilled in the art will
appreciate that the techniques and concepts described herein are
more generally applicable to other wireless communication systems,
where interference prevents a mobile terminal from detecting and/or
communicating with a cell. Particular embodiments disclosed herein
address carrier aggregation and/or the layered use of primary and
secondary cells, i.e. heterogeneous systems in general. Thus, the
present disclosure is not limited to LTE implementations.
[0160] Some embodiments disclosed herein enable acquisition of cell
ID of a cell configured on a component carrier and, optionally,
number of transmit antenna ports, carrier frequency, bandwidth,
cyclic prefix length indication for a component carrier on which
PSS/SSS and PBCH are transmitted with reduced/zero power or
received with bad quality due to high interference. This is needed
in carrier aggregation based heterogeneous network deployments.
[0161] Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that the
various methods and processes described herein may be implemented
using various hardware configurations, generally, but not
necessarily including the use of one or more microprocessors,
microcontrollers, digital signal processors, or the like, coupled
to memory storing software instructions for carrying out the
techniques described herein. As the design and cost tradeoffs for
the various hardware approaches, which may depend on system-level
requirements that are outside the scope of the present disclosure,
are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, further
details of specific hardware implementations are not provided
herein.
[0162] Various embodiments of the techniques and concepts include
radio base stations, such as LTE eNBs, comprising processing
circuits configured to carry out the processes discussed above.
Other embodiments include mobile terminals comprising processing
circuits configured to carry out processes complementary to those
performed by the base stations, plus, in some cases, additional
processes.
[0163] Thus, the present disclosure is not limited to the
above-describe preferred embodiments. Various alternatives,
modifications and equivalents may be used. Therefore, the above
embodiments should not be taken as limiting the scope of the
disclosure, which is defined by the appending claims.
[0164] When the word "comprise" or "comprising" is used in this
disclosure, it is intended to be interpreted as non-limiting, i.e.
meaning "consist at least of".
* * * * *